The terms “hay” and “forage” refer to the leaves and stems of plants that is fed to animals. The plants may be herbaceous, legumes or grasses that are harvested and processed for immediate feeding or stored for feeding during the time that the plants are not producing biomass. The processing of the plants into hay typically involve the processes of cutting the crop, perhaps conditioning the crop by distressing particularly the stems to promote drying, windrowing, baling, and the gathering and transporting of the crop to a storage/feeding facility.
From U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,471, it can be understood that it is often desirable to separate the leaves from the stems of fibrous plants such as alfalfa. The value of separating the leaves is that the leaves are, relatively speaking, very high in protein while the stems are essentially a bulk material with lesser protein and nutrient value. By separating these components of the plant, then the plant components can be optimally stored and processed. When it is time for feeding the animals the components that will most efficiently provide the nutrients to a particular class of livestock can be mixed from the components to meet the needs of the animals. For example, for milk cows a higher mix of leaves may be supplied for more concentrated protein to optimize milk production, while juvenile cattle may get a higher bulk feed containing relatively more stem material.
In order to separate the stems from the leaves the above noted patent utilized a separating technique that was applied to hay, which contained the mixture of stems and leaves. Newer techniques include an in-line alfalfa leaf stripper that is a self-propelled device that cuts and strips the leaves from the stems as an integrated unit. The leaves are then blown into a separate container and the stems are placed on the ground for later baling. Problems with such an interated system include that the system itself is complicated, expensive and is plagued with crop flow issues.
In US patent application 2005/0125150, a crop stripping apparatus is disclosed and the method includes the stripping of leaves in a first pass and the later handling of the remaining stems with a forage harvester in a second pass, which may take place even the same day.
What is needed in the art is a simple, cast-effective and efficient way of separating the leaves from the stems in the field in a single pass.